Bush to establish 3 marine monuments in Pacific

The Associated Press/U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceParts of three remote and uninhabited Pacific island chains are being set aside by President George W. Bush as national monuments to protect them from oil and gas extraction and commercial fishing in what will be the largest marine conservation effort in history. In this photo: Pink coral on the Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

WASHINGTON -- The home of a giant land crab, a sunken island ringed by pink-colored coral, and equatorial waters teeming with sharks and other Jaws-like predators are being designated national marine monuments by President George W. Bush in the largest marine conservation effort in history.

The three areas -- totaling some 195,274 square miles (505,760 square kilometers) -- include the Mariana Trench and the waters and corals surrounding three uninhabited islands in the Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa and seven islands strung along the equator in the central Pacific Ocean.

Each location harbors unique species and some of the rarest geological formations on Earth, from a bird that incubates its eggs in the heat of underwater volcanoes to a sulfur pool -- the only other one exists on Jupiter's moon Io.

All will be protected as national monuments -- the same status afforded to statues and cultural sites -- under the 1906 Antiquities Act. The law allows the government to immediately phase out commercial fishing and other extractive uses.

The Associated Press/U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceButterfly fish swim near the Johnston Atoll, one of seven islands strung along the equator in the central Pacific Ocean.

However, recreational fishing, tourism and scientific research with a federal permit could still occur inside the three areas. The designations will also not conflict with U.S. military activities or freedom of navigation, White House officials said.

It will be the second time Bush has used the law to protect marine resources. Two years ago, the president made a huge swath of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, barring fishing, oil and gas extraction and tourism from its waters and coral reefs. At the time, that area was the largest conservation area in the world.

"These locations are truly among the last pristine areas in the marine environment on Earth," said James Connaughton, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality in a call with reporters. He added that the resources the administration sought to preserve will be fully protected.

In Pago Pago, American Samoa, the U.S. territory's Gov. Togiola T.A. Tulafono said Monday that the designation of Rose Atoll as a national monument will attract research scientists. Rose Atoll is home to giant 85-foot (26-meter) tall trees and is a vital nesting ground for threatened green sea turtles and endangered hawksbill sea turtles. It's the smallest atoll in the world with only about 20 acres (8 hectares) of land.

The move is a boost to the environmental record of a president who has been criticized for not doing enough against air pollution and global warming. He also lifted a moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

It will be up to President-elect Barack Obama to hammer out how the areas will be managed, and to make sure the prohibitions are enforced.

"We and others in the environmental community have been at odds with this administration on lots of things, but if one looks at this one event it is a significant conservation event," said Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, which lobbied for the monuments' designation.

"In a more symbolic level, it sends a message that we have finally arrived at a point where we are beginning to think about the sea in the same way we have thought about the land -- that there are special places under threat that need to be protected," Reichert said.